Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, dies
The historic ally of Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 84 and will be honored with public events in Chicago.
Jesse Jackson in 1985
The Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, a veteran civil rights activist, died Tuesday at age 84. Relatives said in a statement that he died "peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family."
Jackson was a colleague of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and, as a gifted orator, was seen as his protégé. According to AFP, he later founded two organizations, PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in 1971 and the National Rainbow Coalition in the 1980s, which he merged in 1996.
He ran unsuccessfully twice in the Democratic primaries for president: in 1984 and 1988. Throughout his life he received several awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the hands of Bill Clinton. In recent years, while continuing his activism, he began to suffer severe health problems. In November he had been hospitalized for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a neurodegenerative disease.
At the moment, the cause of death is unknown.
"Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," the Jackson family said in a statement.
"We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by."
Public events will be held in his honor in Chicago.
"Jesse was a force of nature," Trump said
"Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him. He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand. He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences," the president wrote.
Also, the Republican noted that "despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a Racist by the Scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left, Democrats ALL, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way."
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